Juvenile Court Diversion Programs
Cleveland County District Court
By Judge Janet Foss

No one likes seeing a teenaged child being removed from the custody of parents and placed in a secured setting for an indeterminate amount of time. This is an option reserved for those juveniles that are classified as serious and habitual offenders. What about those committing misdemeanor-level offenses and felony-level property offenses?

We are fortunate in Cleveland County to have diversion programs available to deflect these youths away from district court involvement. The First Offender Program is offered at the Crossroads Youth and Family Center in Norman and the Positive Adolescent Survivor Skills Program is available at the Moore Youth and Family Center. Both programs take referrals from the Juvenile Service Unit of the Office of Juvenile Affairs. These offenders can be status offenders, such as truants and runaways as well as first-time offenders committing felony-level offenses which are nonviolent. The classes are set up in an educational group format and last from three to six weeks. The participation of a parent(s) is required. Topic areas covered, but not limited to, are substance abuse, making choices and relationships.

The City of Norman and City of Moore both have municipal juvenile courts that handle truancy, status offenses ( i.e. runaways, curfew violations), traffic violations and misdemeanor complaints ( i.e., petty larceny). Both municipalities have developed their own continuum of services to hold these juveniles accountable for their actions. The availability of these courts sufficiently reduces the volume of minor cases that could be brought into the Cleveland County District Court.

The City of Moore administers the Countywide Community Service Program, which not only provides services to the Moore Municipal Court but takes referrals from J.S.U. for any juvenile in the county. These juveniles are supervised by City of Moore employees and perform tasks ranging from trash pick up, mowing to painting. The community service being provided by these juveniles may be the result of a deferred prosecution agreement in either the municipal or county prosecutor’s office as well as a condition of probation in either city or state court. The Cleveland County District Court is extremely appreciative of this program as these juveniles maintain the grounds of the Alan J. Couch Juvenile Center in Norman and do a wonderful job.

Another valuable diversion program in Cleveland County is the Juvenile Intervention Center (J.I.C.). This facility is manned 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Juveniles picked up by law enforcement anywhere in the county at any time can be delivered to J.I.C. for a maximum of 24-hour detention. The staff at J.I.C. will do an assessment to determine the risk level of the juvenile to either self or others if released. If release is not recommended, the juvenile will be detained at the Cleveland County Juvenile Regional Detention Center after screening by J.S.U. or transported to a mental health facility for possible civil commitment. The majority of juveniles placed in J.I.C. are released to their parents with either a municipal court citation or submission of a police report to J.S.U. for intake, who in turn will either recommend a diversion program or filing of a district court petition by the district attorney.

Once a petition is filed, the need for legal representation becomes an issue. The Oklahoma Indigent Defense System represents the majority of juveniles involved in the Cleveland County District Court. However, there are families who do not meet the indigency requirements yet do not have the wherewithal to hire private counsel. Parents should be represented when the disposition of the juvenile involves removal of physical custody from the parents and placement out of the home. There should be a meaningful process to determine the existence of less restrictive alternatives to divert juveniles from institutional placements. This void could be filled by attorneys willing to provide pro bono representation to these parents who instead rely upon the juvenile’s court appointed counsel to raise objections or provide alternative dispositional plans. Unfortunately, the OIDS attorneys are often overextended in meeting their obligations to the multitude of clients they represent and can be complaisant in accepting the recommendations of J.S.U. as the only options available to rehabilitate.

Attorneys interested in pro bono service, not just in the context mentioned above but in other areas of practice as well, should be aware that the three law schools in the state are either in the process of establishing or have pro bono programs which will provide law students to assist attorneys in their representation of these clients. For more information about the University of Oklahoma program, Students for Access to Justice, see http://adams.law.ou.edu/satj/ or contact Professor Judith Maute at jmaute@ou.edu. Oklahoma City University and Tulsa University also have pro bono programs that link students with volunteer attorneys. For TU, contact Jennifer Flexner at jennifer-flexner@utulsa.edu, and for OCU, contact Laurie Jones at ljones@okcu.edu.

Judge Foss is a Cleveland County special district judge assigned to the juvenile delinquency caseload.